Culture Fiend

Week 3: Master Class with Isaac Layman, or A Little Dab(ble) Won’t Do

Class instructed to double down.

Posted by: Adriana Grant on Jan 27, 2012 at 09:30AM 0 Comments

Isaac Layman chills on the front stoop of my building after our first in-person studio visit.

Editor’s note: For this new four-week series, Culture Fiend’s art writer Adriana Grant has enrolled in a master class with Seattle photographer Isaac Layman at the Frye. This is her story.—LD

“I know a number of you have felt unable to put in the 20 hours a week,” Isaac started his email to the students of his month-long master class. His critically acclaimed solo exhibit at the Frye just closed, but he’s plenty busy teaching 11 artists (including myself) to rededicate themselves to their art practice.

“I understand it seems difficult and that it takes time away from other activities,” his email continues, “but it’s entirely doable and necessary if you wish to become critically involved with your art. Dabbling won’t get you where you want to go. Make your art a priority. […] When you do that your art will get better.”

Isaac’s right. Last week I put in 7.5 hours writing poetry—my chosen art practice—and this week, I’ve already made up that time in five days. It’s not easy, but I’m doing what I feel I ought to do, and that creates its own feel-good feedback loop. I’m creating more poetry, better poetry, and it’s easier to return to work with smaller gaps between writing sessions.

Ironically, as Isaac admonishes his students to commit more time to their artwork, he’s doing the opposite. Isaac’s teaching role has thrust him out of his studio and into those of his students. He’s had two one-hour studio visits with each of 11 students. This social labor reminds Isaac to seek more balance in his own life, between his artwork, family, and friends.

As for balance in my own life, I’m putting that aside, as I promised to get closer to the 20-hours-a-week studio requirement, and have a chapbook ready to present for the last class, tomorrow. I have many more hours to go to make that goal, and to be proud of what I’ll show for my month of labor. I might just have to pull the all-nighter Isaac suggested last week.

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Tags: Visual Art, frye art museum, Master Class , Isaac Layman

Week 2: Master Class with Isaac Layman

Snowmageddon can’t keep a good artist down.

Posted by: Adriana Grant on Jan 20, 2012 at 11:00AM 0 Comments

Snow drives us online for our second studio visit.

Editor’s note: For this new four-week series, Culture Fiend’s art writer Adriana Grant has enrolled in a master class with Seattle photographer Isaac Layman at the Frye. This is her story.—LD

It’s week two of Isaac Layman’s master class at the Frye and I’m already behind. I’m not the only one. My classmates have also been unable to commit to the 20-hour weeks of studio time Isaac assigned.

"It’s frustrating for a teacher,” he said during our studio visit, via Skype because of the bad weather. “I am taking your art that seriously, and it’s hard to see the students not, or think they can’t.”

I have been seeing friends and watching movies—things Isaac suggested we give up for our art, just this month. But I have been spending more time writing (my chosen practice) these weeks than ever before. I’ve averaged 45 minutes a day, far short of the three-hours-a-day goal. I did take a self-styled writing retreat—my first ever—at a friend’s mom’s cabin on the Tulalip Reservation, and spent two full days writing prose poetry. I’d create a collage of lines overheard during conversations, things my friends said, or phrases from newspapers or online. My Word doc is a catch-all of notes, quotes, and half-finished pieces; I’ll edit poems in progress, or revise an old piece. I read over finished work to remind me of where I want to go.

“Give me call the moment you feel you’ve exhausted yourself,” Isaac said. “That’s what I’m talking about. I want you to be exhausted. And it hurts a little it and it makes you sore. That’s the most useful thing I can tell you, and people tell me they can’t do it. I think they quit too fast.”

Isaac suggested I pull an all-nighter.

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Tags: Visual Art, Master Class , Isaac Layman

Isaac Layman and ‘The Toughest Art-Making Month of My Life’

We embark on a four-week master class with a local photographer. And without a camera.

Posted by: Adriana Grant on Jan 12, 2012 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Class is in session.

Editor’s note: For this new four-week series, Culture Fiend’s art writer Adriana Grant has enrolled in a master class with Seattle photographer Isaac Layman at the Frye. This is her story.—LD

I enrolled in photographer Isaac Layman’s master class expecting to use my camera. But during our preclass tete-a-tete, we spoke more about poetry than pictures. Though Layman is known as a photographer—his striking large-scale, hyperrealist images are in their first solo museum exhibit at the Frye (through January 22) and have been reviewed by NPR, Artweek, and Art in America—his class isn’t about a specific media. It’s about building one’s creative practice.

In jeans and sneakers, Layman appears easy-going, but when he’s talking about art, his dark eyes flash and he throws his arms about.

“This is going to be,” he warns, “the toughest art-making month of your life.”

During class, Layman recounts part of a David Sedaris story. “Life is a four-burner stove. One burner is family, one is career, one is friendship, and one is health. To be good at what you do, you have to turn off one burner. To be really good, you have to turn off two.”

Our first assignment: spend 20 hours a week making art. My project focuses on a 20-hour writing commitment, and though I have no specific poem output in mind—Layman suggested 40 poems, but I told him that was practically a book—I’m in the process of kick-starting my own writing practice. I’m hoping his hard-core dedication proves contagious.

I’m not shutting off a burner, but I’ve got several hours of writing to do before our next meeting.

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Tags: Visual Art, frye art museum, Master Class , Isaac Layman

Art After-Hours: Where to Go this First Thursday

Museums are free, galleries stay open late. So…many…choices…

Posted by: Adriana Grant on Jan 05, 2012 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Image courtesy Photo Center NW.

Jenny Sampson, Malcolm, San Francisco, 2010.

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Image courtesy Photo Center NW.

Jenny Sampson, Malcolm, San Francisco, 2010.

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Image courtesy Greg Kucera Gallery.

Sean McFarland, Untitled (exit), 2010, C-print, 30 × 36 in., edition of 3.

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Image courtesy Platform Gallery.

Suzanne Opton, Soldier: Mickelson-Length of Service Undisclosed, 2005, archival pigment print.

In January the galleries seem to rev up after a sleepy holiday season—or time away showing at Art Basel Miami Beach. But these First Thursday openings are the ones not to miss.

Surface: Contemporary Wet Plate Collodion Portraiture
Photo Center NW, Jan 5–Feb 15
Wet plate collodion photography dates back to the 19th century, and requires the subjects to sit still for one (very) long minute in order for the image to set on a glass panel; the strain is often reflected in the models’ hardened faces and posture. For this group exhibit, five contemporary artists dabble in this alternative process technology. Daniel Carrillo is known locally for his delicate ambrotype portraits of Seattle artists and art critics. Savannah’s Ellen Susan captures Army soldiers with the same photo process used during the Civil War. National Geographic photographer Robb Kendrick shows images of contemporary cowboys in America, Mexico, and Canada. Jenny Sampson’s tintypes feature skateboarders at rest, while Joni Sternbach’s capture surfers on rocky beaches. Artists’ reception Jan 12, 6-8 pm.

Sean McFarland
Greg Kucera Gallery, Jan 5–Feb 18
For his Seattle solo debut, the Bay Area photographer muses moodily on landscapes in the half-light of dusk. Ivy snakes up tree trunks, all rich greens and shades of black, while a mess of brambles and thorns nearly suffocates. Opening reception Jan 5, 6–8pm; artist talk Jan 7 at noon.

Suzanne Opton: Soldier/Many Wars
Platform Gallery, Jan 5–Feb 11
Opton’s photo portraits of soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are as sad as they are startling. She focuses on their faces—heads resting sideways on the ground, and some with such vacant stares you fear for where their thoughts lie. Artist’s reception Feb 2, 6-8pm; artist talk Feb 3 at Henry Art Gallery.

View the slideshow for images from each exhibit.

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Tags: Visual Art, Pioneer Square, First Thursday

What Galleries to Visit Over the Holidays

While everyone’s decking the halls, consider spending some free time in a more meditative environment.

Posted by: Adriana Grant on Dec 19, 2011 at 12:00PM 0 Comments

Victoria Yee Howe’s Insatiable, at Vignettes on Dec 23.

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Victoria Yee Howe’s Insatiable, at Vignettes on Dec 23.

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Katy Stone, Sunspot 2 , 2011, oil on aluminum, 25 × 26 × 2 in.

What better time to look at art than when the city is dressed in lights, and it feels like the whole of Seattle is on vacation? Many galleries are already closed for the holidays, but there are a few choice exhibits to check out in the weeks before and after Christmas.

Katy Stone at Greg Kucera Gallery
Seattle artist Stone shows a new collection of large-scale, vibrantly colored wall sculptures. In steel and aluminum, the forms are reminiscent of the organic patterns in nubby tree bark and wind-smeared cloud formations. Stone has transitioned from using filmy, plastic Duralar, but the feel of her work remains consistent. The exhibit is open Tuesday–Saturday, 10:30–5:30 until Christmas Eve.

Vignettes: Victoria Yee Howe
This Friday, December 23, Sierra Stinson hosts Vignettes in her Capitol Hill apartment. It’s the one date this month the young up-and-coming curator will open up her home for a three-hour art exhibit and reception (7–10pm). Victoria Yee Howe’s show, Insatiable, is described on vignettes.us as “an edible installation of all-consuming consumption during one night of disintegration.” Sounds like a party to us.

Carolina Silva: Here Forever at Gallery4Culture
One of the strongest exhibits on view right now is Silva’s installation of drawing and sculpture at Gallery4Culture. It features a room full of fat tinsel suspended from the ceiling, drifting in the draft created by wandering visitors. Her strongest piece echoes a work seen at Lawrimore Project a few months ago. A ring of diminutive clay hands reaches upwards from a platform on the floor. Lumpy and imperfect, the hands strain toward an unknown destination. Silva’s show is on view through December 30; Gallery4Culture is open Monday–Friday, 9–5, but is closed on Monday, December 26.

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Tags: Visual Art

Curator Robin Held to Leave the Frye

She’s going to head up nonprofit Reel Grrls.

Posted by: Allison Williams on Dec 14, 2011 at 06:00PM 0 Comments

Photo: Ryan McVay

Robin Held shows off a dark, dripping ensemble.

As reported by Jen Graves at The Stranger, the Frye Museum of Art’s chief curator, Robin Held, is leaving to head up youth nonprofit Reel Grrls. She leaves in February after six years at the First Hill institution, and director Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker hasn’t announced a replacement.

When we asked Robin Held to describe her personal style last year, she called it, “dripping, dragging, dark.” But her tenure at the Frye was more than simply dark—she added to the museum’s collection of 19th-century paintings by commissioning art that was both multidisciplinary and daring.

In March, she spoke to Seattle Met about the Degenerate Art Ensemble, a local performance art group that she brought to the Frye. The troupe takes its name from a German art exhibit the Nazis disapproved of; and DAE shows the same kind of fearlessness in its multimedia work: dance, music, video, and sculpture, including a ninja battle skirt. Held encouraged experimentation, and her influence at the Frye will be missed.

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Tags: Visual Art, frye art museum

Isaac Layman Examines ‘Paradise’ at the Frye

The Seattle photographer searches for divinity in household objects.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Nov 22, 2011 at 03:30PM 0 Comments

Isaac Layman, Untitled, 2011. Photographic construction, ink-jet on paper. 59 × 78 in. Collection of the artist.

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Isaac Layman, Untitled, 2011. Photographic construction, ink-jet on paper. 59 × 78 in. Collection of the artist.

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Isaac Layman, Land Grab, 2011. Photographic construction, ink-jet on paper. 59 × 98 in. in. Collection of the artist.

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Isaac Layman, Untitled, 2011. Photographic construction, ink-jet on paper. 83 × 59 in. Collection of the artist.

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Isaac Layman, Untitled, 2011. Photographic construction, ink-jet on paper. 87 × 120 in. Collection of the artist.

For a year, award-winning photographer Isaac Layman was holed up in his home studio in Wallingford, searching for a glimmer of paradise in the mundane—an ice cube tray, a crinkled piece of paper, even a pile of soggy tissues. “I don’t typically look at my oven for three days,” Layman said, but he would spend up to five hours photographing a single household object to create the 20+ wall-sized images now on display at the Frye in his first museum exhibit. His minimalist approach—most pieces are untitled, and some frames seem to hold blank canvases—might frustrate some, until you hear Layman’s story. Those four panels of glass? They’re actually windows from his house, which he realized he always looked through, but rarely looked at. A few were dirty—but paradise isn’t perfect. It’s full of contradictions, Layman said, and the tiniest things can turn into fantastic vistas. “You can get lost in an ice cube tray.”

View the slideshow for more images from the exhibit.

Isaac Layman: Paradise is at Frye Art Museum thru Jan 22. Daily admission to the museum is free. Join the artist for a tour of the exhibit on Jan 3, 10, & 17 at 2pm; cost is $5, free for members. If you’re a photographer, Layman is also offering a master class through the month of January.

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Tags: Visual Art, frye art museum

Art After-Hours: Where to Go This First Thursday

Museums are free, galleries stay open late. So…many…choices…

Posted by: Adriana Grant on Nov 03, 2011 at 09:00AM 1 Comments

Suze Woolf, Seattle.101, “Noticing Infrastructure,” watercolor on gesso, 25″ × 19″.

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Suze Woolf, Seattle.101, “Noticing Infrastructure,” watercolor on gesso, 25″ × 19″.

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Image courtesy Gallery4Culture.

Jason Hirata, Bubble Milk Tea, 2011, archival inkjet print, 20″ × 28″.

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Julia Freeman and Stacey Levine, A Book of the Future: A Maze, 2011, artist’s book installation, detail.

First Thursday art walks often start with a stroll through the Tashiro Kaplan building at Third Avenue South and Prefontaine Place, home to more than 50 artist studios and galleries. This Thursday is no different:

Soil Cooperative hosts Loose Leaf: Artists and Writers Make Books Together, a collaborative exhibit that pairs scribes and visual artists in an examination of the written word. Fantastical (and plain fantastic) fiction author Stacey Levine—matched with artist Julia Freeman—imagines A Book of the Future: A Maze, while Hugo House cofounder and poet Frances McCue and artist Ellen Ziegler work with the poetry of rocker Patti Smith. Ziegler and McCue’s work muses on the loss of a partner, informed by Smith’s verse on the topic (which they’ll read tonight). November 3 reception 6–8, reading at 8; artists’ talk and reading, November 19 at 7.

At Gallery4Culture, Jason Hirata shows Bubble Tea, a series of cheeky photo-composite posters, made of Photoshopped stock images and the artist’s own, that feature the popular sweet drink. Posters will appear both within and outside the gallery, as well as around Pioneer Square, and in shops where the Taiwanese, tapioca-studded beverage is sold. November 3 reception 6–8.

Suze Woolf’s meticulous watercolor renderings of asset tags—those number-and-letter combos identifying telephone poles—drip with color; they make for a strong show at Zeitgeist Coffee. November 3 reception 6–8 pm. View the slideshow for images from the opening exhibits.

Not new, but still noteworthy:

Andrew Witkin: Among Others, at James Harris Gallery
Patte Loper: Still Point of the Returning World, at Platform

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Tags: Visual Art, First Thursday

Art After-Hours: Where to Go This First Thursday

Museums are free, galleries stay open late. So…many…choices…

Posted by: Adriana Grant on Oct 06, 2011 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

Image courtesy Saint Genet.

Wevers (left) helped choreograph art-as-mayhem for Saint Genet.

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Image courtesy Saint Genet.

Wevers (left) helped choreograph art-as-mayhem for Saint Genet.

If you can stop by only three openings tonight, these are the ones to hit.

Check out performance art troupe Saint Genet (an offshoot of Implied Violence) for Triumph and Ruin, act three of a four-part series. Previous performances have featured whippet-fueled dancers, a ritualized burning of pubic hair, and choreography by Oliver Wevers of Whim W’Him. (We’re not kidding.) Tonight’s show promises a similarly artful performance spilling out onto Occidental Square, starting at 6. Objects (including a whippet) from the series are on view in the Lawrimore Project gallery.
Performance 6–8pm, suggested donation $5–$15. The final performance, Sacred History, is Friday at the former Lawrimore Project (831 Airport Way S). Gallery opens at 6pm, performance at 8pm, suggested donation $5–$15. Cash bar.

Don’t miss the striking, politically charged work of Brooklyn-based Glenn Ligon at Greg Kucera Gallery, which explores race, language, and gender identity through painting, photography, and neon signs. He recently received a midcareer retrospective at the Whitney Museum; he shows some of his newer work here. Opening reception October 6, 6–8pm. Thru November 19.

In Still Point of the Returning World, the third Patte Loper solo show at Platform Gallery, we see a rebirth of a postapocalyptic world in colorful oils, as well the charming stick, string, and cardboard sculptures that served as models for her paintings. Opening reception October 6, 6–8pm, with a special performance by Brooklyn-based synthpop band UVA at 7. Thru November 19.

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Tags: Visual Art, First Thursday,

Witness Art in Progress at the Project Room

Open studio, big ideas.

Posted by: Adriana Grant on Sep 14, 2011 at 11:30AM 0 Comments

Photo courtesy Jess Van Nostrand.

Paul Kikuchi is a musician by training; next week, he’ll be a craftsman, creating an instrument from bamboo.

Instead of being a clean, white cube like so many art centers, the Project Room gets messy. Fungus-infested law books clutter the shelves. Spools of yarn dangle during knitting classes. And perhaps messiest of all, the public is invited to interact with artists at work. The loft space on Capitol Hill (two doors down from new bar Artusi) houses a communal table, perfect for hands-on projects, meals, and debate. You’ll be privy to both discussions and experiments integral to the creative process.

The Project Room is the brainchild of curator Jess Van Nostrand, who, after curating great art at the coffee shop Joe Bar, revamped the Cornish College of the Arts exhibitions program. Her Project Room invites artists to create on-site, with open studio hours for community participation, and it serves as a locus for discussion.

Starting this month, new program Authorship asks sculptors, choreographers, and poets alike to address the idea of a “maker” and how that concept operates in an age of easy appropriation. The first event, “Accidental Manufacture,” features jazz trombonist/composer Stuart Dempster and percussionist/composer Paul Kikuchi building improv instruments on September 23 from 4-6pm, with a performance to follow. Iceland’s Design Collaborative Vík Prjónsdóttir leads the next event—a talk entitled Culture and Collaboration in Clothing Design—on September 28 at 6. Art is always in progress at Project Room; this sort of free-ranging, seat-of-the pants creativity is what the new space is all about.

Find the series calendar at projectroomseattle.org.

The Project Room 1315 E Pine St. Hours are determined by programming. All events are free and open to the public.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Visual Art, Free

Art After-Hours: Where to Go This First Thursday

Museums are free, galleries stay open late. So…many…choices…

Posted by: Seattle Met staff on Sep 01, 2011 at 09:30AM 0 Comments

Image courtesy James Harris Gallery.

Sarah Awad, Fallenheads, 2011, oil on canvas, 24″ x 30″.

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Image courtesy James Harris Gallery.

Sarah Awad, Fallenheads, 2011, oil on canvas, 24″ x 30″.

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Image courtesy G. Gibson Gallery.

Michael Brophy, Explosion, 2011, oil on canvas, 54 × 66 in.

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Image courtesy kellyvivanco.com

Kelly Vivanco, Unraveled, 12 in x 12 in.

We’ll be heading to see:

Sarah Awad: Instruments of Culture
Museums appear as tombs, empty and forlorn with ancient busts lying abandoned on the floor, in the California artist’s new collection of rich oil paintings in pastels and grays, now on display at James Harris Gallery. Opening reception Sept 1, 6-8pm. Thru Oct 8.

New Work by Michael Brophy
Known for his richly textured Northwest landscapes, the Portland painter brings in a human element—workers in the Field, or men eyeing an Explosion on the horizon—in his latest pieces on display at G. Gibson Gallery. Opening reception Sept 1, 6-8pm. Thru Oct 8.

Kelly Vivanco: Where Colors Grow
Woodland creatures and auburn-haired maidens with big doe eyes populate the SoCal artist’s new paintings—scenes as alternately whimsical and dark as a Lemony Snicket story. Now at Flatcolor Gallery. Opening reception Sept 1, 5-9pm.

Last chance to see… Beauty and Bounty: American Art in an Age of Exploration at Seattle Art Museum. It closes September 11.

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Tags: Visual Art, Seattle Art Museum, First Thursday, James Harris Gallery

Sit on Art at the Chair Project Auction

Place a bid on your favorite decked-out chair this Friday.

Posted by: Lisa Han on Aug 15, 2011 at 03:00PM 0 Comments

Photo: James Harnois

DeGroot and Evans have incorporated everything from scissors to pink fabric in this gothic, Edward Scissorhands creation, She Fancied Herself a Refined but Dangerous Raconteuse.

You’ve spotted them in the lobby of McCaw Hall. You’ve looked longingly at them through the Nordstrom windows. They’re gorgeous, one-of-a-kind—and finally, they can be yours. No, I’m not talking about shoes. I’m talking about chairs.

In February, the Pratt Fine Arts Center and the Seattle Design Center teamed up to mastermind the Chair Project, a collaborative effort by 10 designers and 10 artists to transform ordinary items from Baker furniture into startling works of art.

Each piece expresses something different about its creators, who were given a free pass to create. No guidelines, no restrictions. “No one wanted to limit the imaginations or ideas of the teams,” said Brandi Clark, Pratt’s director of community initiatives. The result? Unusual cloaks of gold, cast bronze birds, extravagant layers of paint. Some chairs, like Tom DeGroot and Gretchen Evans’ She Fancied Herself a Refined But Dangerous Raconteuse, have been given queenly makeovers but remain functional as seats. Others, like Louis’ Ascention by Chris McMullen and designer Scott Cole, have been entirely recast as abstract, machine-like sculptures.

To get your hands on one of these prized designs, head to the Chair Project Auction this Friday at 6pm at the Seattle Design Center to bid on your favorite seat. Registration is $50 and all proceeds will benefit Pratt Fine Arts Center.

For more info, visit pratt.org or chairproject.org.

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Tags: Design, Visual Art, Seattle Public Art